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Facebooking for Reform?

Taking the example of the controversial case of Prita Mulyasari, Sydney-based lawyer Arjuna Dibley argues that while social media campaigns in Indonesia can generate widespread interest and debate about problems with the country's criminal law, they do not actually further the process of criminal law reform

The day after Indonesia's last presidential election campaign started on 3 June 2009, the then presidential candidate Megawati Sukarnoputri and her running-mate Prabowo Subianto made a surprise stop-over in the town of Tangerang in West Java. They visited Prita Mulyasari, a young mother fighting two charges of criminal defamation. Shortly afterwards, the then Vice President Jusuf Kalla, General Wiranto and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono – who is ordinarily non-interventionist when it comes to discussions of legal affairs – all made public statements about the unjust use of criminal defamation in the Mulyasari case.

This unprecedented level of political condemnation, media scrutiny and public debate about criminal defamation laws came about in part because of an effective social media campaign surrounding the Mulyasari case. Activists used social media to successfully raise the profile of problems with Indonesia's criminal law. But while social media was effectively used to draw attention to these issues, it has not been a panacea for achieving long-lasting legal reform.

A problematic criminal code

Mulyasari's case began with an e-mail she sent to a group of around 20 friends and work colleagues in 2008, complaining about her treatment at a private hospital in Tangerang. In her e-mail, Mulyasari claimed that she had been misdiagnosed and that the hospital had given her unnecessary treatment to increase her medical bill. Mulyasari also wrote that when she complained about her treatment to hospital management, she was treated poorly. Over the following months, Mulyasari's private e-mail went viral on the Internet, circulating widely on blogs and news websites. It was even published in full on the popular news website detik.com.

In early 2009, the e-mail came to the attention of the doctors who had treated Mulyasari. In addition to filing a civil defamation law suit against her, the doctors also reported her to the Tangerang police for criminal defamation. In April 2009, Mulyasari was indicted on two criminal defamation charges by prosecutors at the Banten Prosecutors Office. Mulyasari should have been brought before a judge within 24 hours of her arrest. Instead, the prosecutors incorrectly used their powers under Indonesia's Code of Criminal Procedure to place her in pre-trial detention for 21 days.

Prita Mulyasari's (pictured above) ordeal began with an e-mail she wrote to a group of friends and colleagues in 2008, complaining about her treatment at a private hospital in Tangerang. When the e-mail went viral, the doctors who had treated her filed a civil defamation law suit against her

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Ten years after Indonesia's process of political reformation, Mulyasari's situation attracted public attention because it highlighted ongoing weaknesses within Indonesia's democracy. After the fall of Suharto, the Indonesian Constitution of 1945 was amended to protect citizens' right to freedom of expression. But the Mulyasari case demonstrated that there were many legal hurdles to overcome before this right could be realised in practice, including the outdated criminal code.

Indonesia's criminal code (a conversion of the criminal code introduced by the Dutch during Dutch colonial rule) imposes a jail term and/or a fine on any person who intentionally makes a statement which contains insults or untruths that injure the reputation of the person or institution at which they are aimed. Owing to a new and controversial 2009 law, criminal defamation offences in relation to statements made on the Internet or through electronic communication have been strengthened. These new electronic-based defamation offences are punishable by a maximum fine of Rp1 billion (about €78,000), as well as a maximum of six years imprisonment. Mulyasari was charged in accordance with both the old and new criminal defamation laws.

The "Coin for Prita" campaign

Mulyasari's case lasted a long time because it was appealed several times by the prosecution. The first of the trials against Mulyasari was held in June 2009 at Tangerang State Court, where the presiding judge dismissed the criminal charges against her on the basis that the prosecution case had not been proven. Following an appeal of the June decision by the Banten prosecutors, the State Court reheard Mulyasari's case in September 2009 and acquitted her of both defamation charges. The acquittal was hailed as a victory by pro-freedom of expression activists who had made creative use of social media tools to support Mulyasari.

The images of Mulyasari, a young middle-class Muslim mother, in detention for an e-mail she wrote to friends, caused a stir in Indonesia. As a consequence, during her period of pre-trial detention, a campaign using new social media emerged in support of her. The campaign, called "Coin for Prita" (Koin Peduli Prita), ran mainly via Facebook.

The organisers of the "Coin For Prita" campaign stopped collecting money in December 2009, by which time they had raised over Rp 800 million (approx €63,000), five truckloads of coins

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The purpose of the campaign was to raise awareness of Mulyasari's plight and to encourage people to donate coins to help her pay any civil damages and criminal fines. In this sense, it was a rapid and major success. The online campaign received widespread press coverage in Indonesia and across the world and by November 2009, its dedicated Facebook page had almost 400,000 supporters and was complemented with offline events including a fundraising concert. The concert, held at the Hard Rock Café in Jakarta, attracted high profile Indonesian politicians, business people and musicians, including a performance by pop sensation Nidji who wrote a song specially for the event.

By December 2009, the organisers of the "Coin For Prita" campaign had stopped collecting money after raising over Rp800 million (approx. €63,000), comprising five truckloads of coins. The coins were ultimately converted into a cheque which was presented to Mulyasari, who used some of the funds to pay her legal costs.

Limits of the social media "conversation"

The "Coin For Prita" campaign successfully generated broad condemnation of the use of criminal defamation laws by senior political figures in Indonesia. The case also prompted a flurry of debate and discussion about how criminal defamation laws should be balanced against free speech rights in Indonesia. On one side of the debate were free speech activists calling for the abolition of the laws because they infringed Indonesian citizens' constitutional right to freedom of expression. On the other were a few government ministers and legal academics who argued that the laws were needed to protect the reputation of government, businesses and individuals. This debate was played out in public interest litigation at the Constitutional Court, the opinion pages of major newspapers, blogs and legal academic and policy forums. The Mulyasari case featured heavily in these debates.

Even President Yudhoyono (pictured above), who Arjuna Dibley says is usually non-interventionist when it comes to discussions of legal affairs, made public statements about the unjust use of Indonesia's criminal defamation law in case of Prita Mulyasari

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However, the social media campaign and the public debate which followed has not led to reform of Indonesia's criminal defamation laws. Despite the fact that criminal defamation laws were so robustly opposed at the height of the Mulyasari case by major political figures, the laws (both the Criminal Code offence and the new 2009 offence) remain largely unreformed. In fact, they continue to be used to charge bloggers and other Internet users in Indonesia. In March 2010, for example, Muhammad Wahyu – a university student from East Java – was charged with two criminal defamation offences, after he made disparaging comments on the personal Facebook page of a fellow female student. Wahyu was given a three month jail term, suspended for six months.

Additionally, the campaign built around Mulyasari's case ultimately did little to redress her own situation. After the initial hype surrounding the Mulyasari case had died down, her case was again appealed by the Banten prosecutors in July 2011. Over a year after her last trial, the social media "conversation" around Mulyasari had moved on to other issues, and consequently her Supreme Court appeal was not met with any of the social media fanfare that had surrounded her initial indictment. In what was a remarkably underreported event, the Indonesian Supreme Court convicted Mulyasari and handed down a six month suspended sentence.

Mulyasari's experience shows that new social media can rapidly bring issues of injustice to the public's attention through small simple messages and images. A large number of Indonesians use social media, allowing these messages to quickly go viral across the Internet and generate political pressure. However, social media activism to date in Indonesia – so focused on short messages and rapid responses to new cases – often lacks the longevity and depth required to instigate systemic legal reforms. As Mulyasari's case shows, once the initial hype over a particular case looses currency and the social media "conversation" moves on, the difficult, complex and longer-term goal of reforming the law remains unresolved.

Arjuna Dibley is a Sydney-based lawyer who wrote a thesis about criminal defamation and democracy in Indonesia, including the Mulyasari case, in 2010. He regularly writes about Indonesia on public policy blogs and in the press.

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